Jan 26, 2010
Regarding grammarians who “misuse educated as meaning agreeing with me”
Gabe Doyle writes an excellent comparison of etiquette mavens and language mavens—both thrive on making definitive claims, supported by no evidence.
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Related:
- Replace whimsy with evidence: Use Merriam Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage.
- Would you rather be wrong with Shakespeare or right with supercilious pedants?
- These kinds of books are sad: English serves you. You don’t serve English.
- Prescribed grammar rules are important…for making money and fitting in.
Relativist!
(Yeah, that was a compliment.)
I fully agree with Abraham on this one and on all of the rest of the descriptive vs. prescriptive linguistic rabble rousing on this site.
I tell people that I’m a linguistic relativist for fun and to play with those who equate that position with moral or epistemological relativism. I think, though, that linguistic pragmatist is probably a better description.
Do prescriptive grammarians still exist? Who DOES that? Am I right? *raises glass awkwardly while chewing the end off my Cuban cigar*
Occasionally I think I’m a real “lingua-dork”.
Then I read this blog and those first two comments and realize I am completely normal.
Thanks guys!
Hear, hear! Language matters, ya know? You’ve probably seen this but just in case you haven’t: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmLE2bliXCI
You all say thses things, but not one of you would ever proffer this:
“am completely I I normal realize”
And pretend that it somehow conveys meaning — even though the sentence
“I realize I am completely normal”
has the same words.
Yeah, but that’s just because word order matters in English.
Descriptive grammar simply means that a sentence means what the majority of native speakers of that language agree that it means. It doesn’t mean all rules are thrown out the window; it just means that the speakers of the language – as opposed to a book – make the rules.
So if the MAJORITY of speakers of English would say that “I don’t want it to fall in” is a sentence – regardless of it’s ending with a preposition – then it’s a grammatically correct sentence to a descriptive grammarian.
No native speaker of English would agree that “am completely I I normal realize” is a sentence. It doesn’t make sense in English (though it would in, say, Russian) because SVO is the recognized format for English sentences by speakers of the English language.
Ignorant is another all purpose insult for those who disagree with you.